1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to Web-based content delivery systems and methods, including Web-based target advertising systems and Web-related marketing systems and methods. More particularly, the invention relates to Web-based methods and systems for adjusting the delivery or presentation of content according to collected user responses.
2. Background Information
On-line advertising and content provision has grown tremendously since the inception of the Internet and on-line services. Users can access a wide variety of information associated with their interests by using the Internet and accessing Web sites generated by providers. A computer equipped with a program called a browser, such as Netscape Navigator from Netscape Corporation, makes it a simple task to traverse the vast network of information available on the Internet and, specifically, its subpart known as the xe2x80x9cWorld Wide Web.xe2x80x9d
The architecture of the Web follows a conventional client-server model. The terms xe2x80x9cclientxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cserverxe2x80x9d are used to refer to a computer""s general role as a requester of data (the client) or provider of data (the server). Under the Web environment, Web browsers reside in clients and specially formatted xe2x80x9cWeb documentsxe2x80x9d reside on Internet (Web) servers. Web clients and Web servers communicate using a protocol called xe2x80x9cHyperText Transfer Protocolxe2x80x9d (HTTP).
In operation, a browser opens a connection to a server and initiates a request for a document or a Web page including content. The server delivers the requested document or Web page, typically in the form coded in a standard xe2x80x9cHyperText Markup Languagexe2x80x9d (HTML) format. After the document or Web page is delivered, the connection is closed and the browser displays the document or Web page to the user.
The Internet consists of a worldwide computer network that communicates using well defined protocol known as the Internet Protocol (IP). Computer systems and servers that are directly connected to the Internet each have an unique address consisting of four numbers separated by periods such as xe2x80x9c123.456.0.3xe2x80x9d. To simplify Internet addressing, a xe2x80x9cDomain Name Systemxe2x80x9d was created that allows users to access Internet resources with a simpler alphanumeric naming system. For example, the name xe2x80x9ccapitalone.comxe2x80x9d is the name for a computer system or Web server operated by Capital One(copyright).
To further define the addresses of resources on the Internet, a Uniform Resource Locator system was created that uses a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) as a descriptor that specifically defines a type of Internet resource and its location. URLs have the following format: xe2x80x9cresource-type://domain.address/path-name.xe2x80x9d The xe2x80x9cresource-typexe2x80x9d defines the type of Internet resource. Web documents, for example, are identified by the resource type xe2x80x9chttpxe2x80x9d, which indicates the protocol used to access the document.
To access a document on the Web, the user enters a URL for the Web document into a browser program executing on a client system with a connection to the Internet. The Web browser then sends a request in accordance with the HTTP protocol to the Web server that has the Web document using the URL. The Web server responds to the request by transmitting the requested object to the client. In most cases, the object is a plain text document containing text (in ASCII) that is written in HTML. Such objects often contain hyperlinks to other Web documents. The Web browser displays the HTML document on the screen for the user and the hyperlinks to other Web documents are emphasized in some fashion such that the user can select the hyperlink.
In some instances, the HTML document may contain data from more than one server. For example, remote text and images may be retrieved from remote servers and integrated into a Web document by a client system. One server may provide an image file, while another server may provide text information to the client system over a network such as the Internet. Different techniques are available to display these types of composite Web documents. For example, a program called a servlet executing on one of the servers may combine data from the various servers referenced in a selected Web document and transmit the composite Web document to the client. In other configurations, the client may utilize a program called an applet, which may be transmitted to the client from one of the servers, to access the multiple servers offering parts of the composite and to build the composite Web document.
Generally, users view the content delivered in the Web pages and may select hyperlinks to other sub pages of a Web site, or to entirely different Web sites. Providers associate the users xe2x80x9cbrowsingxe2x80x9d these Web pages as potential consumers for the products and services they provide. By simply providing a Web server having information on a providers"" product and service offerings and a customer database, and linking the Web server to the Web, providers may track user interactions with the Web server including visits, sales, buying trends and product/service preferences-all at the user level. Providers may then present or offer its customers with products and services they are most likely to buy-on an individual basis. For this reason alone most marketing professionals consider the Web to be one of the best direct marketing tools. In order to gain new, or retain existing, customers, providers need to ensure they present products and services that potential consumers are interested in. Accordingly, the importance of target advertising and target content provision has become an important role in the way providers conduct business over the Internet.
One conventional technique associated with target advertising is the use of advertising banners presented on existing Web pages generated by providers. When a user accesses a Web page associated with a provider, using a Web browser such as Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer, a banner advertising the provider""s products or services appears on the Web page. This banner may be presented by the Web page""s provider, or may be provided by a third party advertisement server. When an interested user selects the advertisement (by xe2x80x9cclicking throughxe2x80x9d on the banner) the user is generally forwarded to another Web page or site associated with the advertisement. This page or site may be the third party advertiser""s home page. The success of the advertisement is based upon the user""s response, in this case, the user xe2x80x9cclicking throughxe2x80x9d the advertisement or banner, to receive more information on the content advertised.
Conventional implementations of target advertising attempt to present appropriate information, or advertisements, to selected users, such that the probability of that user being interested in the advertisement increases. These implementations monitor and collect limited user response information, along with information associated with the advertisement presented to the users. The user response information generally includes user identification data such as, user ID, domain type, location, and other general information associated with the user. The advertisement information generally includes the particular advertisement presented, the number of times the advertisement was presented, the advertisements selected by a user, and the Web pages on which these advertisements were presented. User profiles may be created that associate user interests based on the types of advertisements and Web pages the users view. The collected information is analyzed to associate a success value with a particular advertisement based on the user information and the advertisement data. For example, a successful advertisement may be declared if the advertisement produced a sufficient number of xe2x80x9cclick throughsxe2x80x9d from a plurality of users.
However, in the event an advertisement is not declared successful, new advertisements or banners may be presented to selected users, based upon their profile. For example, users interested in athletics or sports, based on their profile, may be targeted with advertisements associated with athletic apparel, while users interested in music may be presented with advertisements associated with available concert tickets or audio CDs.
Advertisements are adjusted by replacing the presented advertisement with another image/text object stored in a database. That is, when a target advertisement is to be changed, a replacement advertisement image/text object is retrieved from a database and positioned in the accessed Web page the previous advertisement was located. Accordingly, entire banners are replaced each time a new advertisement is needed to target a selected user. Furthermore, when the objects stored in the database are no longer effective, these objects must be modified and updated, which may take a significant amount of time.
Conventional implementations of target content provision for Web sites are also associated with the disadvantage of time consumption. The conventional techniques adjusting Web site renderings is a time consuming process which incorporates human intervention and an extreme amount of information. To evaluate the success of content presented on Web sites, the providers of the site generally collect user response data similar to that described above. That is, user information such as cookies, and general content information is monitored and collected. A database is created of this collected information, which includes massive amounts of data. The information is later analyzed either by an analytical engine, or through user intervention, and resultant data is created expressing the likelihood of successful content for various profiles of target users. Decisions are made on the type of content that should be provided, and the content is manually adjusted. This includes changing a Web site""s presentation, or the content provided by the site, for example changing a loan percentage rate or incentives on a type of product for sale. This process can take days, weeks or sometimes months, depending upon the resources available to a provider.
Although conventional on-line target advertising and content provision techniques allow adjustments to be made on downloaded documents in order to target selected users, they lack the ability to dynamically adjust and create specific content within the Web page or site, such that the content can be automatically adjusted on a xe2x80x9creal-timexe2x80x9d basis, and monitor the results of the dynamic adjustments for market analysis.
In view of the foregoing, it is therefore desirable to have a method and system for dynamically delivering and presenting content to users in a Web-based environment, such that the content provided by a Web site can be automatically adjusted based upon collected user responses, on a xe2x80x9creal-timexe2x80x9d basis.
Methods, systems and articles of manufacture consistent with the present invention collect detailed user activity information while the users are accessing Web sites, and automatically adjust the content presented in the Web site to target selected users. The changes to the content can be very drastic, such as the entire site being completely adjusted, or very minute, such as the replacement of font in selected areas of the site.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, a Web server presents a Web page including content to a plurality of users, via a browser executing at each users"" client site. While the users view the page, detailed activities performed by each user, such as xe2x80x9cclick-throughsxe2x80x9d, screen scrolling, and mouse movements are collected in a client side data store using client side scripting, applets or similar means. After an event occurs, such as the client side data store fills up, a new URL is selected, the browser is closed, or a new Web page is selected, the collected activity data is sent back to the Web server where its is stored in a server side data store. A program executed by the Web server retrieves the collected response data from the data store and performs market analysis and produces results that reflect the success of the content presented on the Web page displayed to the users. These results are used by a second program executing on the Web server to update the content presented to the user, on a xe2x80x9creal-timexe2x80x9d and automatic basis.
Accordingly, the Web server can present targeted content to a user, or a group of users, based on rules associated with the users"" profiles. The content can be dynamically adjusted, based on the rules, to present entirely different content or subtle differences, that may appeal to the users. The users"" responses to the new content are monitored, and subsequent changes can be made by following the same process. Thus, the present invention performs closed loop xe2x80x9chands-freexe2x80x9d market analysis on the effectiveness of rendered Web pages and allow the pages to be automatically altered for future testing and analysis.